RACE EQUALITY CHIEF FACES LEGAL CHALLENGE OVER APPOINTMENT. Tony Sewell, the former head of an education charity, is Downing Street’s choice to lead the commission it set up in July as a response to the global Black Lives Matter protests, through which demonstrators have demanded racial equality. But the appointment was met with dismay by campaigners, who pointed to Sewell’s past attempts to play down the effects of institutional racism and focus instead on placing responsibility on the black British community.